Comment Re:Remember... (Score 1) 206
wish i had mod points, this is an excellent & important observation.
Comment Re:Is it any different with anybody else? (Score 1) 206
Or, how about not requiring encryption in the first place? All introducing a countermeasure does is flag you as a possible person of interest. Far better to nip it in the bud where possible.
Comment re:what's the benefit of privacy from the governme (Score 1) 505
this is absolutely the wrong question to ask, though: have you never heard of innocent people being convicted of serious crimes?
mistakes happen all the time. when governments make mistakes, the consequences are a whole lot more severe than when an individual does, acting on his or her own.
someone seriously arguing--especially in this day & age--that having nothing to hide means the US government should be able to see anything & everything a US citizen reads/writes online betrays a fantastically naive view of governments and how they use power, irrespective of his or her particular political ideology.
Comment Cowboy Neal does my searching for me! (Score 1) 277
In Soviet Russia, Cowboy Neal does my searching for me!
Comment no cowboy neal option? (Score 1) 166
i just realized that there's no cowboy neal option. ?!
Comment re: more details (Score 1) 92
this is normal in the case of data breaches. usually, an investigation is done to determine scope/size of privacy breach. and remember the sony "what outage" story from earlier this year.
i'm mystified as to why the contractor in question isn't being named. that is an absolutely inexcusable lapse in judgment.
i'm mystified as to why the contractor in question isn't being named. that is an absolutely inexcusable lapse in judgment.
Submission + - Oiled SeaBirds: To Kill Or Not To Kill? (scienceblogs.com)
grrlscientist writes: Some people claim that we should euthanize all oiled birds immediately upon recovering them. But I argue it is our ethical responsibility to protect, clean and save these birds, even after they've been oiled, just as we should preserve and clean their habitats
Comment a raised eyebrow or smile? (Score 1) 194
apparently, you should no longer shop while browsing p40n!
Submission + - The new week likely to bring a new iPhone (skunkpost.com)
crimeandpunishment writes: All signs point toward Apple unveiling its newest version of the iPhone during its annual software developers conference, which begins Monday. Apple has used this conference to reveal the last two generations of the smart phone, and a lot of things have already been leaked online. But we might not get the answer to another big question this week: what is Apple's new music service?
Submission + - Space X's Falcon 9 appears as UFO in Australia (abc.net.au) 1
RobHart writes: ABC (the Australian Broadcasting Commission) has reported extensively on a bright spiraling light that was seen in Eastern Australia just before dawn. They have just broadcast a report from an Australian astronomer who has suggested that the light was probably the successful Falcon 9 launch, which would have been over Australia at that time on its launch trajectory.
Submission + - $11 Mistake Costs Couple Slot Machine Jackpot (kdvr.com)
ainandil writes: Engineering mistakes, while frustrating, seldom definitively alter the end user's life. Not so in Cripple Creek Colorado — MaryAnn and Jim McMahon thought their money troubles were over when they hit an $11 million jackpot at a casino Tuesday. Before paying the jackpot, the Wildwood Casino turned the machine over to the Colorado Gaming Division for inspection. A glitch was found, aha! The Wildwood Casino blamed a slot machine malfunction for the $11 million jackpot. Total actually won by the McMahons? $1627.82. ...and you thought you had a bad day.
Submission + - How to learn data structures? 2
stm2 writes: I have more than 15 years of programming experience with high level languages (mostly VB, PHP, Python) and most things I learned were "on the field" working solving client needs (my major is not in CS) and by self-learning. So I not a newbie but my formal education on this area is not strong (to say the least). I want to learn more on data structures (such as binary trees, composites), from a formal point of view. What book or website do you recommend for this task?
Submission + - Best way to effectively write an API
An anonymous reader writes: I began my career as a software engineer a few years ago and as my responsibilities increase i'm getting more and more requests for API's to be designed from the ground up. I work with c# as my primary language and I can design API's but its a trial and error type thing and always very awkward. What are some good practices to take into account when designing an API on paper and if there are any good books on these types of subjects and project management recommendations would be great.
Submission + - Adobe Warns of Flash, PDF Zero-Day Attacks
InfosecWarrior writes: Adobe issued an alert late Friday night to warn about zero-day attacks against an unpatched vulnerability in its Reader and Flash Player software products. The vulnerability, described as critical, affects Adobe Flash Player 10.0.45.2 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris operating systems. It also affects the authplay.dll component that ships with Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX operating systems
Submission + - U.S. Climate Satellite Capabilities in Jeopardy (wired.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The United States is in danger of losing its ability to monitor key climate variables from satellites, according to a new Government Accountability Office report.
The country’s Earth-observing satellite program has been underfunded for a decade, and the impact of the lack of funds is finally hitting home. The GAO report found that capabilities originally slated for two new Earth-monitoring programs, NPOESS and GOES-R, run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Defense have been cut and adequate plans to replace them do not exist.
Meanwhile, up until six months ago, NASA had 15 functional Earth-sensing satellites. Two of them went down in the past year, and of the remaining 13, 12 are past their design lifetimes. Only seven may be functional by 2016, said Waleed Abdalati, a longtime NASA satellite scientist now teaching at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Taken together, American scientists will soon find themselves without the ability to monitor changes to key Earth systems at a time when such measurements could help determine the paths of the world’s energy and transportation systems.
The country’s Earth-observing satellite program has been underfunded for a decade, and the impact of the lack of funds is finally hitting home. The GAO report found that capabilities originally slated for two new Earth-monitoring programs, NPOESS and GOES-R, run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Defense have been cut and adequate plans to replace them do not exist.
Meanwhile, up until six months ago, NASA had 15 functional Earth-sensing satellites. Two of them went down in the past year, and of the remaining 13, 12 are past their design lifetimes. Only seven may be functional by 2016, said Waleed Abdalati, a longtime NASA satellite scientist now teaching at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Taken together, American scientists will soon find themselves without the ability to monitor changes to key Earth systems at a time when such measurements could help determine the paths of the world’s energy and transportation systems.
